THE omens were not good for Malvern as they took a team with five changes from the win over Newbold to Midlands Two West title favourites Broadstreet.
BROADSTREET 29PTS, MALVERN 12PTS
The Coventry side have made the running all season in a bid to return to Midlands One at the first time of asking. However, there is an aura of self-belief in the Malvern squad these days, and even wholesale changes did not seem to perturb the underdogs too much on Saturday.
After only two minutes, another injury added to the Malvern jinx as Dave Wilkinson received an eye injury which saw him take no further part in the proceedings. Steve Ott switched to stand-off and Andy Burns took his place at centre. Forced to take the game to the hosts, Malvern astounded the home players and supporters by attacking from the off. The Broadstreet playmaker, stand-off Brown, has been the outstanding Midlands Two performer all year.
Not last Saturday. Phil Rawle (nine turnovers on the day) and Gareth Taylor gave the home midfield a torrid time, with blind-side Sharpe also putting in a massive tackling effort.
Malvern's onslaught forced Broad Street into errors and infringements, three of which were punished by the boot of Steve Ott to give Malvern an unexpected 9-0 lead at half-time. It wasn't just in the loose where Malvern had shone, with Chris Smith majestic in the line-out and the scrum holding firm against a supposedly superior pack. Ian 'Beano' White had his best game to date for Malvern, nipping, harrying and constantly driving his forwards on to greater effort.
Broadstreet, possibly having expected Malvern to do little more than make up the numbers, were shaken by the first- half upset and brought on some big hitters for the second- half, including Simkiss, lately plying his trade at National One side Coventry, coming in at number eight.
Ott popped over another penalty, but slowly Broad Street came back in the game, their fitness starting to tell as Malvern began to tire. Two fairly soft tries allowed them to draw level, then their class centre pairing began to find some space to move the ball around after Simkiss's effective organisation tightened up their play.
After the right-winger put Broadstreet ahead on the hour, Simkiss scored a try himself to give Broad Street a 10 point cushion, which would have been a fair reflection of the game overall.
However, a failure to touch the ball down went unspotted by the referee to make the margin to Broadstreet a trifle flattering at 29-12.
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